Miguel Oliveira is playing this weekend on his Portuguese soil and before entering the fray for his national Grand Prix in Portimao, he was able to enjoy a great moment of popularity with his compatriots. An episode which apparently brought him lots of positive energy given his assessment of a Friday spent in the rain in Lusitania…
After the bath of youth with its audience, Miguel Oliveira was washed out by the rain in Portimao on the first day of Portuguese Grand Prix. The factory driver KTM finished sixth in his performance, showing that he knew how to manage the conditions, thus promising a Saturday of the same ilk. He only lost a little over 0,5 seconds to the leader Marc Marquez, who best mastered the wet conditions. He also remained in the top 10 in the afternoon.
« A strange day in difficult conditions ", highlighted Olive tree on speedweek. " We did very well in the morning, but we had a lot of things to improve. At the start of the second session the conditions weren't too bad but I couldn't use the worn rear tire and in the second half of practice it wasn't possible to go any faster ».
Miguel Oliveira: “the cold was the biggest problem"
The ninth in the world championship won the race on the island of Lombok in Indonesia in March. The track was also wet at the time, but the temperatures were significantly higher. Friday in Portimão, the thermometer indicated a little over 12 degrees… “ I focused on my pace and wanted to gather information for Saturday. Moderately fast left turns like turn 9 had to be treated with particular caution. Turns 11 and 4 were also very difficult to get through. It was my first time in the rain on this track. The grip was normal, but since it was quite cold we definitely struggled a little more. Our rain tires are perfect, the cold was the biggest problem », ends the pilot of 27 years.
FP1/FP2 results of the MotoGP Portuguese Grand Prix at the Algarve International Autodrome in Portimão:
Classification credit: MotoGP.com
